Synopsis

Description

The gpinitstandby utility adds a backup, standby master host to your
Greenplum Database system. If your system has an existing standby
master host configured, use the -r option to remove it before
adding the new standby master host.

Before running this utility, make sure that the Greenplum Database
software is installed on the standby master host and that you have exchanged SSH
keys between the hosts. It is recommended that the master port is set to the same
port number on the master host and the backup master host.

This utility should be run on the currently active primary master host. See the Greenplum Database Installation Guide for
instructions.

The utility performs the following steps:

Updates the Greenplum Database system catalog to
remove the existing standby master host information (if the -r
option is supplied)

Updates the Greenplum Database system catalog to add
the new standby master host information

Edits the pg_hba.conf file of the Greenplum Database master to allow access from the newly added standby
master.

Sets up the standby master instance on the alternate master
host

Starts the synchronization process

A backup, standby master host serves as a 'warm standby' in the event of the primary
master host becoming non-operational. The standby master is kept up to date by
transaction log replication processes (the walsender and
walreceiver), which run on the primary master and standby
master hosts and keep the data between the primary and standby master hosts
synchronized. If the primary master fails, the log replication process is shut down,
and the standby master can be activated in its place by using the
gpactivatestandby utility. Upon activation of the standby
master, the replicated logs are used to reconstruct the state of the master host at
the time of the last successfully committed transaction.

Important: If the gpinitstandby utility previously failed
to initialize the standby master, you must delete the files in the standby master
data directory before running gpinitstandby again. The standby
master data directory is not cleaned up after an initialization failure because it
contains log files that can help in determining the reason for the failure.

If an
initialization failure occurs, a summary report file is generated in the standby
host directory /tmp. The report file lists the directories on
standby host that require clean up.

Options

-a (do not prompt)

Do not prompt the user for confirmation.

-D (debug)

Sets logging level to debug.

-F list_of_filespaces

A list of filespace names and the associated locations. Each filespace name
and its location is separated by a colon. If there is more than one file
space name, each pair (name and location) is separated by a comma. For
example:

filespace1_name:fs1_location,filespace2_name:fs2_location

If this option is not specified, gpinitstandby prompts the
user for the filespace names and locations.

If the list is not formatted correctly or number of filespaces do not match
the number of filespaces already created in the system,
gpinitstandby returns an error.

-l logfile_directory

The directory to write the log file. Defaults to
~/gpAdminLogs.

-n (restart standby master)

Specify this option to start a Greenplum Database standby
master that has been configured but has stopped for some reason.

-P port

This option specifies the port that is used by the Greenplum Database standby master. The default is the same port
used by the active Greenplum Database master.

If the Greenplum Database standby master is on the same host
as the active master, the ports must be different. If the ports are the same
for the active and standby master and the host is the same, the utility
returns an error.

-q (no screen output)

Run in quiet mode. Command output is not displayed on the screen, but is
still written to the log file.

Displays the version, status, last updated date, and check sum of this
utility.

-? (help)

Displays the online help.

Examples

Add a standby master host to your Greenplum Database system and start
the synchronization process:

gpinitstandby -s host09

Start an existing standby master host and synchronize the data with the current
primary master host:

gpinitstandby -n

Note: Do not specify the -n and -s options in the same command.

Add a standby master host to your Greenplum Database system specifying
a different port:

gpinitstandby -s myhost -P 2222

If you specify the same host name as the active Greenplum Database
master, the installed Greenplum Database software that is used as a
standby master must be in a separate location from the active Greenplum Database master. Also, filespace locations that are used by the
standby master must be different than the filespace locations used by the active
Greenplum Database master.

Remove the existing standby master from your Greenplum
system configuration: